Print-on-Demand Books Cost More

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Print-on-Demand Books Cost More

The retail price of self-published, print-on-demand books is rising, much to the chagrin of their authors.

Xlibris and 1stbooks.com, two of the biggest self-publishing, POD facilitators, will raise the cover price of their books as much as 30 percent as of Sept. 1.

The companies say the spike in cover prices are due to retailers' demanding that they pay less from the publishers for books.

The other major player, iUniverse.com, will not be changing its prices yet, said Lynn Zingraph, general manager of author services. "We're going to watch what happens and make an evaluation in a few months."

Xlibris will also raise the price of books sold directly through the site by 15 percent. "But as a counterbalance, we’ve changed our royalty structure to make sure the author won’t be impacted on direct sales, meaning sales made through our site," said CEO John Feldcamp.

The way the new system works, a $22 book sold at Amazon.com will net an author a 10 percent royalty of $2.20. The same title sold directly from the Xlibris site will cost the customer only $18.65 but net the author $5. (Which works out to be a 25 percent royalty on the undiscounted cover price of $22.)

At 1stbooks.com, an author gets a royalty 30 percent of the wholesale price of the book so the same $22 book would net the author just under $3.50 regardless of where it sold or for how much.

But authors aren’t concerned about royalties as much as they fear higher priced books will be less attractive to potential readers.

Radio commentator (for NPR'S WVTF and Marketplace) Janis Jaquith is upset that her book, Birdseed Cookies, published by Xlibris.com will go from $16 to $21.99.

"The problem is that this wonderful, tree-saving, warehouseless method of book publishing is being imposed upon a horse-and-buggy model of sales," Jaquith said.

Even with the problems of POD, self published authors like Jaquith still feel that compared to the old method of forking over thousands of dollars and ending up with a garage full of unread books, "POD is nothing short of a miracle."

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Writers site collects debt: Over the past two years, the number of complaints from writers regarding non-payment for services from publications has been on the rise.

But since June, over $15,000 has been collected for several freelancers through WritersWeekly.com Warnings, a free collection and dispute resolution service.

The service, which receives as many as 10 complaints every day, does not accept any money that writers collect.

"Some editors think that, because they're hiding behind the veil of an e-mail address, they no longer need to worry about abusing freelancers in some way," said founder Angela Adair-Hoy.

From glossy nationwide magazines to hometown newspapers, and from major publishing houses to mom-and-pop e-publishers, Writer’s Weekly is seeking payment for those who have been wronged.

"The beauty of the Internet is that we can obtain copies of e-mail correspondence from editors – including their excuses made to writers – within seconds," Adair-Hoy said. "This proof makes it very easy for us to nail down the guilty party and request payment for the victim."

If a firm doesn't respond to WritersWeekly.com Warnings within two business days, Adair-Hoy forwards all complaints to the correct state's attorney general, regional Better Business Bureau office, region's FBI field office and the National Writer's Union.

"But, the worst possible penalty is that they get a grand slam mention in that week's issue of WritersWeekly.com, which now has over 55,000 subscribers, most of whom are freelance writers," said Adair-Hoy.

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Read fast and save: Many critics of e-books have complained that high-priced electronic files that cannot be lent or borrowed or put on a shelf don’t offer the consumer enough.

Now RosettaBooks is lowering the price to a buck and offering an e-book that only lasts for 10 hours.

For the next month, Agatha Christie's classic mystery And Then There Were None will be available at rosettabooks as a special time-based permit edition. Printing out the book is not permitted.

After paying the dollar, digital distribution services provider Reciprocal will process the financial transaction and issue a digital permit enabling the reader to view the 275 page title using AdobeSystems's Acrobat eBook Reader.

After 10 hours (cumulative), the permit expires and the reader has the option of renewing the time-based permit or purchasing it for $4.99.

One of the benefits of the timed technology will offer publishers a cost-effective way to distribute review copies and bound galleys with the layout, fonts and graphics intact, said Susan Altman Prescott, a VP at Adobe.

Timed-out books also offer sampling options.

"While this is not a model that I would use to purchase, I suppose it gives the readers a chance to try the e-book out before they spend more money ... and for the read-once-and-toss people, this is optimal," said Mary "Dejah" Tyler, author and owner of Private Ice Publications.

M.J. Roseis the author of two novels and a nonfiction book about e-publishing.